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Being Thin and Being Lean: Is There a Difference?

ayazali — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 15:09:52 +0000

Often people will look at a thin person and think to themselves; now that person is nice and lean. But is that really always the case? Does being thin have a direct relationship with being lean? In order to answer these questions we must examine what it means to be thin verses what it means to be lean.

Now you can define being thin as having a small circumference size. This would be denoted by small waist, arm, leg, and chest diameters as well as a low body weight all in relation to overall height.

The definition of being lean however is measured by overall body composition. This would be denoted by a low percentage of body-fat verses percentage of lean mass (muscle and bone). You may be surprised to know that thin people quite often are not lean at all. In fact, many thin people have a much higher body-fat percentage than you might think!

Now you may be thinking; how is that possible? Thin people don’t look fat so how can they have much body-fat? Consider this example:

Two women at 40 years old are both 5′ 7″ tall and both weigh 120 pounds. Women # 1 has a body-fat percentage of 25 and a waist size of 30. Woman # 2 on the other hand has a body-fat percentage of 16 and a waist size of 27. Both look thin, but woman # 2 is clearly leaner. What could be the cause of this? Why could both women be the same age, height, and weight but one is so much leaner than the other?

Atrophy is the term used for the natural loss of muscle that begins to occur in people at around the age of 25 who are sedentary or do no resistance training or strength training. By the time a person reaches their mid to late thirties a significant amount of muscle can be lost if no resistance training is being done.

How to Making Exercise More Enjoyable and Fun?

ayazali — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 15:02:09 +0000

Aaahhh, the thought of getting up in the morning and going to the gym to lift weights or run on the treadmill. How about the thought of going to the gym after a hard days work when you’d probably rather just go home and relax? Even the thought of exercising at home on your own equipment can be less than desirable.

Sometimes trying to get and stay motivated to exercise on a regular basis can be quite a challenge, after all, exercise can almost be downright boring and tedious at times. So then just how can you get the motivation to maintain an exercise program on a regular basis? What can you do to make exercise something to look forward to everyday and not feel like a chore, like something you feel like you have to make yourself do each time? Well, here are some ideas that just might help to make exercising a little easier and a lot more fun.

To start with, exercise with a friend. Here you can challenge each other, help each other, keep each other motivated and on track, may be try to make each other laugh during a set or while jogging on the treadmill, make kind of a game out of it. Try something different. If you go to the gym everyday and use the same piece of equipment or use the same piece of equipment at home try mixing up your routine. Reverse your routine or just change the order of your exercises or sometimes don’t even go to the gym or use your home equipment. Go to a city park that has playground equipment. Use the slide, climb on the monkey bars, do pull-ups, hang from your knees, just use your imagination.

You don’t need to always have a strict routine, just get out and work your muscles. Do an outdoor circuit in the park. Some parks have circuit courses set up with a planned course and all you have to do is walk or jog to each station and follow the instructions. If there’s no planed course then do a combination of jogging and walking and pick a distance such as 200 feet. Jog 200 feet then drop and do 10 pushups, walk the next 200 feet then drop and do 20 ab crunches, then jog the next 200 feet and do 10 pullups if a bar or sturdy tree branch is available.

Try an activity like riding a bike around your neighborhood or hike on a hiking trail. A nice walk in the park or just around your neighborhood is a good way to get exercise. A little yoga in the park or on the beach is a nice relaxing way to exercise your body and your mind.

Try playing a competitive sport. Most cities have team activities such as softball, volleyball, tennis, soccer ect. And these activities not only provide you with good exercise but also put you in circumstances to meet a lot of new people as well.

When exercising, picture your muscles. Studies have shown that if you focus your thoughts on the muscles you are working, they will respond better. Try to see them working with each repetition as they contract and relax.

As you can see, there are many ways to make getting exercise more fun and interesting. You need not always follow the standard routine of going to the gym or using your home equipment and doing the same old exercises day after day. The important thing is just that you incorporate exercise in any various forms into your everyday life and make these habits the kind of habits that will last a lifetime.

An Exercise Routine You Can Do at the Office

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 15:06:51 +0000

Ok, so you’re one of those people who just has the worst kind of schedule known to mankind. You get up at 5am so you can get to the office by 7am to start your day. You have to go to a parent-teachers meeting at your kid’s school right after work, then you have to take your kid to soccer practice after that. You seem to have days like this almost all the time. You never seem to have much time for yourself between all of the things you have to do every day, so how can you possibly find the time to incorporate exercise into your day? Exercise takes time, and time is one luxury you just don’t have.

Well, there is a way to get some exercise into your day and that way is to simply exercise at your desk. No, that was not a typo. Here is a little routine that you can do right at your desk. It doesn’t take up much time and while it will not make you a candidate for the next fitness competition, it will give your muscles enough work to stay firm.

Complete one set of each exercise in order, doing 10 to 20 repetitions of each exercise, and follow the repetitions with 1 to 2 more sets in order if time permits it.

Chair crunch:
Sit tall in your chair with your feet flat on the floor. Begin to slowly round your upper back downward until you feel your abdominal muscles tighten. Hold for 3-5 seconds, and then return to the start position.

Squats:
Stand up in front of your chair. Sit back into a squat like you are sitting back down in your chair, keeping your weight on your heels and your knees behind your toes. When you are almost touching your chair with your butt, push yourself back to the standing position using your leg muscles.

Calf raises:
Stand in front of your desk and put your hands on the desk for balance. Lift yourself up on to the balls of your feet. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds and then lower yourself back down to the floor.

Desk pushup:
Stand 4 to 5 feet away from your desk and put of your hands on the edge of the desk. Relax your lower body and using just your arms, lower your chest down toward the desk and stop when your chest is about 3 to 6 inches away from it. Then push yourself back up to the starting position again using only your arms.

Seated triceps lift backs:
Sit tall in your chair. Put your arms down at your sides with your palms facing forward. With your arms strait and elbows locked, slowly bring your arms up behind you until you feel your triceps muscles tighten. Hold for 3 to 5 seconds and then lower your arms back to the starting position.

Seated bicep curls:
Sit tall in your chair. Start with one arm down at your side, palm facing forward in a fist. Put your other hand over your fist and push against it for resistance while bringing your fist up toward your shoulder. Once your fist is close to your shoulder, lower it back down to the starting position maintaining constant resistance with the other hand throughout the entire movement. Complete all repetitions for that set, then switch sides and repeat.

After you have completed each exercise for the amount of repetitions and sets you can do, sit down and straighten your legs. Now gently reach for your toes until you feel you can’t go any further, hold for 10 seconds (do not bounce), then return to the starting position. Next, reach your arms out to your sides as far as you can. Keeping them fully extended, bring them slowly to the front and cross them over each other as far as you can. Hold for 10 seconds, and then return them to your sides. Now, reach your arms over your head as far as you can, hold for 10 seconds, and then return them to your sides.

Taking the time to do this simple but effective exercise routine at the office will help you keep toned and you can do it even with the worst schedule possible. This routine is also helpful by the fact it can be done during your lunch break and still leave you enough time to eat your lunch. Enjoy your workout!

Tips For Making Home Gym Workouts Successful

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:55:38 +0000

For many people, going to the gym is not something to look forward to. There is the drive to get there. There are the membership fees. There are the crowds of people there to contend with. There are the many distractions that come with the lack of privacy. Sometimes there are the lines of people waiting for the same piece of equipment you want to use. The list goes on and on. But, many of these people do not want to give up on exercising and so as an alternative to going to the gym, they will go out and buy some home exercise equipment.

While this is a great way to stay with your exercise plans, with all of the advantages that come with home workouts (like no fees, no crowds, total privacy and the convenience of not having to drive back and forth), there are a few things you should know that will help you to get the most out of your home gym training.

First of all, you need to set clear and realistic goals. Simply exercising at random is not the best approach. Define what you want an exercise program to do for you, and use the types of exercises that are more specific to that goal.

Once you have your goals set, you need a plan. Just putting yourself on any random routine will not usually be the best way to get to your goals. Try to find routines that are geared toward achieving what you are trying to do. If you need to, hire a qualified personal trainer. Take a few sessions with him/her and they will be able to get you on the right track and show you all the things you can do with your home equipment.

In a lot of cases, finding a friend to exercise with can be a big asset. If your training partner is as devoted as you with a positive outlook like you have, you can challenge each other, keep each other on track and make exercising more fun in the process.

One of the best resources there is to making your home workouts successful is to keep an exercise log. When you keep track of your progress like writing down repetition increases, writing down weight increases on each exercise you do or writing down increased time and speed on the treadmill, you will see how you are progressing and that will give you more incentive to stick with it.

You need to realize that in order to make gains, you have to use progressive overload. Your muscles will adapt to the same amount of weight in a short period of time, and so you must make small, periodic increases as you go. In some cases, it is a matter of performing one or two more repetitions than you were doing. In other cases, you might make small increases to the amount of weight you were using for each exercise.

After you have been on a particular routine for anywhere between 3-6 weeks, your body will adapt to that routine. Once you notice that you are not really getting much from your current routine, you need to change it up. You can change over to supersets or drop sets, or put yourself on a circuit style system. You can change the number of repetitions you do, change the amount of time you rest between sets or even change the amount of sets you do.

Last but not least, you need to keep aware of what you are eating daily. A large part of your overall results are determined by your nutrition. You can’t gain muscle without giving yourself enough calories for them to build on and you can’t lose weight by taking in too many calories. Try to eat daily according to your needs and goals.

The information here should provide you with a good foundation to get you on your way to achieving your goals with your home gym workouts

How to Keep Yourself Fit (After 40)

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:49:59 +0000

Have you ever noticed how people who do no exercise at all still have a look of fullness in their arms, legs and chests for example, when they are less than 30 years old? Have you also noticed that this look of fullness starts to slowly become a look of droopiness and sagginess when they are over 30? Our body is at its peak at between 25 and 30 years of age. After this point, our body starts to slowly go into a decline and we tend to put on weight a little faster than before.

Part of the reason for this is, after 30, we begin to lose muscle to what is known as atrophy (muscle shrinkage due to disuse). We also begin to lose bone density leading very slowly to osteoporosis eventually. Muscle is active tissue and therefore burns calories. When we start to lose muscle to atrophy, our metabolism begins to slow down as a result leading to more fat storage and weight gain, and over 50% of this is due to inactivity. Is there anything you can do to help reverse this process? The answer is yes you can.

We’ve all seen it, there are two women standing together, one is around 35 years old while the other is around 50, yet the older women looks more firm and vigorous than the younger women. You might ask yourself; how does she do it? The answer is, she exercises. Period! You, at almost any age can stay in great shape as well, but you have to exercise. You have to make exercise a regular part of your day.

A good exercise program would be one that contains both aerobic and resistance exercise with some stretching added also. Many prefer to do aerobics and resistance exercises separately, but a lot of people find that the best workout for them is circuit training since it utilizes all three of these types of exercise in one, and is very effective and time saving.

A lot of people seem to think that aerobic exercise is the best way to lose and maintain weight, but, since 75% of the calories you burn are at rest, this is not the case. Aerobic exercise only burns calories during the activity, and then within two hours after you are finished, you burn no more calories than before. Resistance exercise on the other hand builds and maintains muscle, and since muscle is active tissue, you burn more calories than before, even at rest. One pound of fat burns around 4 calories per day while one pound of muscle burns around 50 calories per day. After 30 years of age, an inactive person will lose

How to Know if You Are Over Training

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 14:35:03 +0000

As everyone knows, exercise is good for you. It helps to keep your weight down, helps to keep you toned up and helps to make you feel good. So then, if getting a little exercise is good for you, then it must be better to get even more. And if getting more indeed is better, then it stands to reason that getting a lot would be even better. Sounds logical, doesn’t it? However, this is not always the case. When you exercise with fairly high intensity, and you exercise that way often, there will come a time at some point when your body will begin to slowly start to shut down. People will get to this point at different times, depending on their fitness levels and exercise intensity and frequency. If after exercising you tend to feel more wore out than worked out, you may already be a victim of over training.

There are some signs that your body will give you both physically and mentally that will let you know that you are over training. It is wise to recognize these signs and act accordingly, before the problem gets to the point of causing you possible serious injury. Some of the major signs to be aware of are:

Decreased performance
Lack of motivation
Poor coordination
Loss of appetite
Chronic muscle soreness
Chronic stiffness at the joints
Chronic headaches
Longer recovery times
Loss of concentration
Reduced self esteem
Depression

You need to understand that whatever your exercise goals are, your body needs ample time to recover and adjust to the demanding loads you placed on it. Sometimes people who are newcomers to the world of exercise will try to do too much too soon, and may ignore their body when it’s trying to tell them to take a break. In the case of some who have been exercising for a while, they will often view these signs as an obstacle and feel the best way to deal with it is to “work through it” or “tough it out”. For some others, the problems causing them to overtraing may be more psychological. Excessive exercise is now recognized as a legitimate problem, much like anorexia nervosa or bulimia.

For most, the solution to the problem is simply to exercise in moderation or cut back on the intensity from time to time. Use prioritization in your routines. When you feel the signs of over training coming on, reduce the intensity of your workouts for a while. When you are ready to increase the intensity again (your body will let you know), then gradually start to pick it up again. Know what you can do, and never try to compare your workout to anyone else’s, as this is asking for problems. There are some times when you should even just take a whole week completely off and do no exercising at all. This is like taking a vacation from work, it gives you body and your mind a chance to relax and rejuvenate so you can start again a week later nice and fresh.

Remember, exercising to the point of over training is almost as bad as not exercising at all. Overtraining will only impede your progress, not help it and in the long run, if you let yourself overtraing, you may be headed for some very unwanted side effects

How to Get Muscle Definition

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 07:53:02 +0000

What is muscle definition? Muscle definition refers to having your muscles appear more visible and pronounced. A person with a twelve inch arm can have a more muscular look than someone with an eighteen inch arm because he/she has better muscle definition. Muscle definition is determined by two things:

muscle size
percentage of body fat

Better definition is created by working on both of these things. The first thing to do is reduce bodyfat by burning off all the excess fat you can. The way to do that is by doing lots of low intensity “fat burning” exercise like treadmill, exercise bike, walking or slow jogging ect. The thing is to make sure you use as little resistance as possible. Running with a weighted backpack is not pure aerobics. Fat loss is a matter of calories in verses calories out so your goal is to burn a lot of calories over time, not to try to burn them all in one week.

The second area is to increase muscle size and I’ll clear one thing up right now, there is no such thing as “training for definition”. There’s only three things a muscle can do where size is concerned and that is:

it can get smaller
it can get bigger
it can stay the same size

There is no particular way to train it to be more defined except to make it bigger and the way to do that is to force it to work against heavy resistance that it is not used to in short, high intensity overloads. It is better to do six reps with 200lbs than to do twenty reps with 100lbs. while the common belief is to do high reps with lower weight to get definition this just is not the case. High reps means that you have to use low weights and that will not increase muscle size.

Remember this, lifting weights all day won’t burn as much fat as the treadmill or other aerobic exercises and doing aerobic exercises all day won’t increase muscle size one bit so when you weight train, train on the heavier side. The muscle you build will help keep off the fat as well because it will burn fat all day.

If you mind these two principals, you will have the muscle definition you are looking for and it will come before you know it!

How to Get Around Excuses For Not Exercising

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 07:41:55 +0000

Over the years, there have been people making up plenty of excuses to avoid exercising. Some of these excuses are creative, some are ridicules, but most are in a group of common excuses used everyday to justify not having to make the effort to improve their health and well being.

How many people do you know who were going to start exercising and start getting in shape and they were going to start this coming week, but that was two weeks ago and they still haven’t started yet? What excuse did they have this time? Maybe this has happened so many times, you stopped counting. Maybe this has even happened to you more times than you can remember. Well, what’s stopping you?

Here are some of the most common excuses used by people to not exercise, and the ways that you can get around those excuses if they have plagued you and are stopping you from partaking in a healthier lifestyle.

Don’t have the time to exercise

By far and away, the most common excuse used today is; “I don’t have the time to exercise”. The old perception that you have to exercise for 1 to 2 hours a day is just nonsense. A good, solid exercise routine doesn’t have to last for more than 20 to 30 minutes a day to be very effective. If you can’t find up to 30 minutes a day to exercise, then how do you manage to find up to 2 hours or more a day to watch TV?

Can’t afford to pay for a gym membership

Another popular excuse used often is; “I can’t afford to pay for a gym membership or for home equipment”. The fact is, you can get in better shape and lose weight without ever setting foot in a gym. Walking and or jogging around your neighborhood or in the local park don’t cost a dime and will give you all of the benefits of a cardio workout at the gym. Doing callisthenic exercises such as crunches and pushups and so on at home also cost nothing. Home fitness equipment can also be purchased that will give you a good resistance workout for under $50.00 such as resistance tubing bands and an exercise ball.

Don’t know how to exercise or what exercises to do

“I don’t know how to exercise or what exercises to do” is an excuse that gets used from time to time, but there are several ways to learn how to exercise right and what exercises to do. Using the services of a qualified, certified personal trainer is the best way to get you going in the fight direction. If affordability is an issue with a trainer, there are workout videos and books that you can buy to help you out, you can even find loads of exercise books at your local library that you can check out free of charge.

I’m too old and or out of shape to start exercising

Another excuse that seems to be fairly common is; “I’m too old and or out of shape to start exercising”. This excuse is really only valid if your doctor has told you that you should not exercise for some medical reason. If you are very out of shape or you are a senior citizen, then you may just have to start out slowly. Even starting out with only 5 minutes a day of exercise and slowly increasing as you go is much better than doing no exercise at all.

I hate anything to do with exercise

Last but not least and by far my favorite excuse is; “I hate anything to do with exercise”. This one always gives me a laugh. Most people who really think they hate exercise do so because they are stuck with the image that exercise is a series of boring, grunt and groan exercises involving heavy weights, or jogging far enough to complete the Boston marathon. The old adage of “no pain, no gain” is still embedded in the minds of many people, and who wants to have to go through pain every day to get in better shape? Exercise is really all about getting active and getting your body moving. Even playing in a softball league or hiking on a trail or bicycle riding is good exercise. Just find activities that you like to do and you will find that exercise can be fun.

No more excuses

Ok, no more excuses. The time is now. Making the time to spend even 30 minutes a day to get active, get in some exercise, and get yourself more healthy and fit will by far be the best thing you can do for yourself and your family. Think of how much more you can enjoy doing the things you like to do when you are in better condition and better yet, think about how much more you can enjoy your children as they grow up and how much more you can enjoy your grandchildren later in life.

Going to the Gym for the First Time?

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 07:24:28 +0000

You’ve been thinking about it for quite some time now. You know you need to get your butt to the gym and start working out. You’ve gotten yourself out of shape and an hour or so in the gym three or four days a week sure wouldn’t hurt.

Ok, so you’ve finally done it. You went down to the local fitness club and spent 2 weeks pay on a one year membership. You even went to the local k-mart and got yourself some new exercise outfits. Now you’re ready to go and get in shape. But before you do, there are a few things you should keep in mind to make your time in the gym productive, enjoyable and most of all, injury free.

WARM UP FIRST:

This is very important to not only get your blood flowing but to minimize the risk of injury. Some good warm up methods include walking on the treadmill for 10-15 minutes starting out at a slower pace then working up to a more brisk pace halfway through.Perform 10 minutes or so of stretching exercises such as toe touches, hurdlers stretches, twisting at the waist and reaching your arms out fully in every direction. Before you do any exercises that involves weights (biceps curls for example), do one set with half (50%) of the weight you’ll be using. This prepares the muscles, tendons and ligaments performing the exercise to better handle the heavier weight.

START OUT EASY:

When you first get to the gym and you are ready to hit the weights, select an amount of weight at first that seems almost too light but still provides some resistance for each exercise. Remember that proper form, posture and technique are far more important than how much weight you are using. Also, you must give your connective tissue ( tendons and ligaments) time to strengthen.

This will help prevent injury from the heavier weights you’ll be using later. You can always increase the weight as you go, but only if you can do so without compromising proper form, posture and technique. When you first get on the treadmill, stationary bike, stair climber or elliptical machine, remember that your heart probably isn’t going to be in the kind of shape to go all out.

For this reason you should take it at a slower pace for a while. Each week, pick up the pace and the length of time spent on these machines a little at a time. This will give your heart time to build up to faster paces and longer periods. Remember, your heart is a muscle and like any other muscle, it needs time to adjust to the stresses placed on it during exercise.

KEEP AN EXERCISE LOG:

One of the best ways to monitor your workouts as well as your progress is to write out your exercise program and stick to it. Write in the weights you use for each exercise, and when your ready to increase the weight on any exercise, write in the change.

On the treadmill or any other cardiovascular machine, write in your speeds and length of time spent. When you’re ready to make increases, write them in. This way you not only are able to stay on a structured program ( which is far more productive that having no system ), but you can also keep track of the progress you are making and see how much progress you have made since you started. When you see that you’re making good progress as you go, you will become more motivated to stick with it.

COOL DOWN:

After you’ve completed your workout, take 10 minutes at a slow pace on the treadmill. This will let your body cool down a little slower and a slower paced cool down is easier on your heart than if you cooled down quickly. During this time, you can reflect on the workout you just performed and feel the sense of well being that exercise gives you. Now that you know a few things that will help to make your gym experience more productive, more enjoyable and injury free, you are ready to go and start working on getting the body of your dreams, the right way.

Exercises That May Hurt Your Spine (5 gym exercise)

ayazali — Sun, 07 Apr 2024 07:07:02 +0000

Regular exercise is good for our body and it lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Many people thus have the impression that all kinds of exercise are good and safe. Due to time constraints, many of us choose to work out in a gym. However, not all of the exercise machines in a gym are safe. Some gym exercises are a complete waste of time while some may hurt your spine if they are not properly done or if you have existing problems.

Squats with knee bends

Many of us bend our knees when we are doing squats. Bending our knees too deep will cause our spine to get misaligned as it is unable to maintain the proper alignment. When misalignment occurs, our pelvis will start to tilt and our lower back will take over control and this will increase the stress to our back muscles, increasing the chances of injury to our spinal discs.

Behind the head lat pull down

We often see many people doing behind the head lat pull downs in the gym. However, this is not to be performed by everyone. Only those with very flexible shoulder joints should do it and extreme care must be taken not to injure their back with the pull down bar.

Upright rows

Upright rows are done by holding a weight in the center and placing both hands close together, bringing them up to just under your chin. However, this exercise will compress the nerves, causing issues to both the shoulders and the spine.

Hamstring stretches

While tight hamstring may contribute to back pain, improper usage of the hamstring stretching machine can contribute to spinal disc injuries. When we stretch out to touch our toes, it feels good for the hamstring but will add a huge amount of strain to our back. The entire weight of the body is weighing down onto the disc and it contributes injurious pressure to the discs and causing spine injuries.

Dead lifting

Many of us love to do free weights exercise in the gym and it can help us build wonderful muscles. However, headlining is bad for the back. Dead lifting is done when you bending over at your waist to lift a weight. Although it helps to build up strong back and leg muscles, it is straining the back and causing harm to your spinal discs.

Not all gym exercises are for everyone and not every is good for the body. If you have existing conditions, always consult a specialist before doing certain exercises in the gym. Know your limits and do not attempt to do weights that are beyond yours as you will start using other parts of your body to lift them instead.